Death of a Constitution Writer, Botched Seppuku, World’s Worst Vacation, And More [Sunday News]

Every Sunday we gather the week’s weird and interesting Japanese news and present it to you in our Sunday News column. It might not always be hard-hitting news, but we hope that it still informs and entertains you. Enjoy!

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S Korean man stabs himself at airport to protest arrival of Japan envoy: Korea is home to some of the craziest protesters in the world; they cover themselves in bees, eat flags, and literally fling poo. Now one protester has taken it another, extreme level by stabbing himself in the stomach to protest new Japanese leadership. I can think of a few other ways to get your message across without disemboweling yourself, but whatever works for you, man. [via News On Japan][/threecol_two] [threecol_one_last]Japanese Man Vacations on Syrian Front Lines: You probably get sick and tired when you see your friends post a million pictures from their vacation on Facebook, but Toshifumi Fujimoto’s case, you might actually get sick. The Japanese trucker is vacationing in scenic Syria, where he’s snapping pictures of the death and destruction around him and uploading them to his Facebook. I’d rather go to Disneyland, thanks.

1,000 watch year’s first sunrise from Tokyo Skytree: One of the most exciting stories from 2012 was the opening of the Tokyo Skytree, a colossal new tower completed last February. The view tallest tower in the world must be spectacular, but doubly so at sunrise on New Year’s Day, especially when you’re joined by 1,000 of your closest friends. [via News On Japan][/threecol_one_last]

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[threecol_one]Japan PM Abe wants to replace landmark war apology: paper: Apologizing over Japan’s imperialism in East Asia during WWII has always been a hot button issue, inciting protests, riots, and escalated diplomatic tensions. Bearing that in mind, newly-elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has decided that the best way to deal with this long-standing issue is to just not apologize at all. What could go wrong?

New High for Tuna at Tokyo Fish Sale: Even though Japan’s famous Tsukiji fish market is closing soon, it’s still making headlines. A bluefin tuna was sold for $1.76 million dollars, or $3,600 per pound to a Tokyo restaurant magnate. The year’s first tuna is always highly prized, but this particular fish broke pretty much every record ever. [/threecol_one] [threecol_two_last]

Beate Gordon, Long-Unsung Heroine of Japanese Women’s Rights, Dies at 89: For people in the US, the drafters of our constitution have become kind of mythical figures, people how lived long ago and bestowed our most basic laws upon us. The writers of the Japan’s constitution are much more tangible characters, whose mortality was emphasized earlier this week when its only woman writer, Beate Gordon, passed away. Her legacy remains unchanged, unamended to this day.
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…anyone have 1000 friends I can borrow? If not, then I’ll just spend my day disemboweling myself because I got stuck in Syria, while a tuna made more money than I ever will. Before I go and meet Beate, I just want to say I have no regrets!

http://www.facebook.com/AveryGoodgame Nick Hattan

I got to watch the first sunrise off of my roof. Not as cool, but at least I was eating sea salt ice cream, since my friend used to be obsessed with Kingdom Hearts and we both took a liking to the recipe.
Butstill. Skytree would have been the bee’s knees ._.

Tora.Silver

One could say he just couldn’t stomach the idea of foreign leadership.

古戸ヱリカ

Making a joke about something like this? That’s not very knife of you.

DAVIDPD

I kind of agree with Prime Minister Abe. Because really no matter what he says, people are still going to be pissed. Why Eff with the status quo?

Admiral Awesome

I’m sure he had very good reasons for doing… jeez cut him some slack.

http://mistersanity.blogspot.com Jonadab

When I read this story, I had a gut feeling someone would make fun of it. It’s not real sharp, but there you are. People always make jokes about serious topics, anne frankly they need to stop. Can jew nazi how hurtful it is?

http://mistersanity.blogspot.com Jonadab

The ideal thing is probably to replace the apology with a statement to the effect of “No apology we could offer would change what has happened” and let it go at that. Then at least when people are still upset with you, they prove your statement correct.

Yuume

That’ll show those Japanese. Trying seppuku in protest. Mmhm. Way to borrow ideas Mr. Man.

Only 1,000 of my friends could come? Time to weed out some people on Facebook, I guess :/

And regarding the apology…why not just apologize, but not. Something along the lines of, “No apology given by anyone no matter how great could ever undo this tragedy”.

When I saw the story about the tuna, I just imagined Tamaki from Host Club prancing back to Haruhi with this crazy expensive fish and her just being non-chalant and shooting him down about it XD

And I wish people would take example from Beate and realize when you have something good, don’t ammend it -_-